What is Antifa and why does Donald Trump want to designate it a terrorist organization?
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is designating Antifa as a terrorist organization, announcing the move on his Truth Social platform Thursday morning during a state visit to the U.K. His announcement comes in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
However, the announcement does not automatically make it so, and there are doubts about whether it is allowed under the U.S. constitution.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote . “I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices.”
???? "I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION..." - President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/irLHCkrX1n
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 18, 2025
He did not provide further details about how he would make the designation. Here’s what to know about Antifa, and the announcement.
What is Antifa?
Antifa is a contraction of the term anti-fascists, and describes a broad coalition of people whose political beliefs lean toward the left, and often the far left. Antifa members campaign against actions viewed as authoritarian, homophobic, racist or xenophobic. It is, however, an ideology rather than a group.
“Sometimes I compare it to feminism,” Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers University and the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, told the Washington Post this week. “There are feminist groups, but feminism itself is not a group. There are antifa groups, but antifa itself is not a group.”
Who is Antifa?
It’s impossible to say how many people count themselves as members, since the movement is nebulous and secretive, with no official leaders. It may overlap with more organized groups such as the Occupy movement or Black Lives Matter.
What has Antifa done that can designate it a terror organization?
According to Bray, Antifa adherents primarily monitor far-right groups and organizing counter-protests. “Insofar as terrorism is setting off explosives and killing people, that’s not what these groups ever do,” he told the Washington Post.
However, Antifa gained visibility in 2017 after a series of events that included the punching of far-right activist Richard B. Spencer after the inauguration of Donald Trump; violence that led to the cancellation of a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California, Berkeley; and counter-protests against white nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, N.C. The New York Times suggested all these events were part of the broad Antifa movement.
While there are fewer recent actions that can be definitively tied to the group, it remains the case that organizers believe that using violence is justified because of what they are fighting.
“The argument is that militant anti-fascism is inherently self-defence because of the historically documented violence that fascists pose, especially to marginalized people,” said Mark Bray, a history lecturer at Rutgers University and the author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, in a 2020 interview .
When did it start?
Antifa can trace its roots back to the 1930s , when a rising tide of fascism in Europe led to a pushback. In 1932, for instance, the Communist Party of Germany founded a group called Antifaschistische Aktion, sometimes abbreviated as antifa. It was forcibly dissolved after Hitler’s rise to power.
Antifa grew more visible after Trump’s first election in 2016, fighting what it saw as an authoritarian and even fascist streak in the new administration.
Didn’t Trump threaten to make this designation before?
Yes he did. Back in 2020, Trump tweeted that “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.”
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
But the designation never happened, and various experts and commentators suggested it was unconstitutional . Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union said at the time that there was “no legal authority for designating a domestic group” as a terrorist organization.”
She added: “As this tweet demonstrates, terrorism is an inherently political label, easily abused and misused. There is no legal authority for designating a domestic group. Any such designation would raise significant due process and First Amendment concerns.”
Can he do it this time?
Not easily. The FBI maintains a list of more than 80 designated foreign terrorist organizations, dating back to 1997 and regularly updated. The latest additions, added Thursday, are a quartet of Iraq-based, Iran-aligned Shiite military groups.
However, the FBI does not maintain a similar list of domestic terror groups , and has no mechanism for doing so, though it works with other law enforcement agencies to track and interrupt domestic terror activities, which can be perpetrated by right-wing, left-wing or unaffiliated groups.
“Under the First Amendment, no one can be punished for joining a group or giving money to a group,” Professor David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University, told BBC Verify .
He added that a president designating an organization a “major terrorist organization” has no effect on “those fundamental rights.”
Trump has also said he’s talked with Attorney General Pam Bondi about bringing charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against left-wing groups that he claimed were funding Antifa.
“I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of RICO, bringing RICO cases,” he said, adding: “They should be put in jail, what they’re doing to this country is really subversive.”
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